For this Charity Sunday, I am going to send items to the Adams County Animal Shelter for their Smitten for Kittens drive.
The shelter is not currently set up to take monetary donations, so I will purchase items through Amazon. Thus, if I receive 5 comments I will send at least $5 worth of items. I hope that makes sense.
Here is the shelter's Amazon wish list.
This donation is being made in honor of Lafayette, one of the best friends I've ever had in this crappy and stupid world.
The above image is the property of Cara Hartley/Ornery Owl/Naughty Netherworld Press/Poetry of the Netherworld. You are welcome to use the image respectfully as long as you credit one of the above.
I shouldn't have to say this, but because the world is filled with shitty assholes, I am going to tell you all that I have no patience for the kind of person who, upon seeing this photo, says something nasty about my body or sanctimoniously declares that they don't like tattoos. I really don't give a fuck what you think about my body or whether you like tattoos. If you can't say something nice, fuck off elsewhere. Like into the sun, for example. The need to be hateful or behave in a holier-than-thou fashion says worse things about you than it does about me.
I adopted Lafayette and Tara from the Adams County Animal Shelter in March 2010. They had both been in their kennels at the shelter for most of their lives. Tara was six months old. Lafayette was 8 months old and absolutely wild. He kept tapping at me. He was completely agoraphobic when I first brought him home and hid under the printer table until nighttime. When I went to sleep, he came out and shredded my arm. It wasn't out of malice. He wanted to play. I had the vet trim his claws, and he learned how to play with soft paws quickly.
Those of you who have been with me a while may recall Tara from her post-surgery pictures when she had a benign tumor removed from her forehead. She looked like a juvenile Skeksis.
Tara is doing well overall. Following the chemotherapy treatments, the fur that was shaved off to do ultrasounds of her abdomen grew back a lighter color.
Tara and Lafayette were either half-siblings or cousins. They were from the same feral colony. They shared the condition of feline stomatitis, which required the removal of most of their teeth. Both of them were quite inbred and had multiple health problems. Lafayette had multiple system failure and had to be put to sleep on his sixth birthday, 17 July 2015. My heart broke into a million pieces on that day and has never mended.
I originally posted the following poem on this blog on 12 November 2020. It honors Lafayette and Trinity, who didn't get along very well. They were jealous of each other. However, they both got along with the brothers Leon and Raymond (both gone now as well) who served as a buffer between them.
Trinity died on 4 November 2016 from brain and lung cancer. As that was the same day that Donald tRump was elected, it is quite simply one of the shittiest days in history.
The poem also appears in my third poetry volume, December Mood. If you are smart enough to subscribe to my epic newsletter today, you will eventually receive a link to a free ARC of this epic collection. (Honestly, I'm still working on getting the new and better Naughty Netherworld News set up.)
https://bit.ly/NaughtyNetherworldNews2
If there is some crazy reason that you don't want to receive a thrilling gift in your inbox every month, you can purchase the poetry volume from Amazon or borrow it via Kindle Unlimited.
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Every day I think of you
I remember what good friends you were to me
If you were the color of your spirit set free
I’m wondering what you would be
Lafayette, would this be you?
Did you become something like this when you rose away?
I thought that there would be more time to say
How much I love you every day
Trinity, my colorful girl
With your beautiful, expressive eyes
Would I recognize your new disguise?
If only I could be that wise
I walk through the darkness of my dreams
With eyes closed fast, not wanting to see
The hopelessness surrounding me
Knowing what I wish can never be
~cie~
Acknowledgments
Picture 1: A Haiga created by me. Please credit Cara
Hartley/The Real Cie
Picture 2: Beautiful You Are by Magic Love Crow
https://magiclovecrow.blogspot.com/
Picture 3: Delightful Donkey by Gina Morley
https://daydreambeliever-gina.blogspot.com/
Picture 4: Carnival Dreams by Shelle Kennedy
http://sunshineshelles.blogspot.com/
This post was created using these prompts:
November PAD Chapbook
Challenge prompt for 11 November 2020 (write a color poem.)
https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/2020-november-pad-chapbook-challenge-day-11
Poets and Storytellers United Weekly Scribblings #45
https://poetsandstorytellersunited.blogspot.com/2020/11/weekly-scribblings-45-artistic.html
This poem was posted to these places:
http://poetryofthenetherworld.blogspot.com
https://lbry.tv/@poetryofthenetherworld:9
The Icky, Sticky, Nit-Picky Legalese If You Please (Or
Don't Please)
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